“V you know I have associates from many different organizations. I saw a chance to settle a problem for both sides before there was any bloodshed. Well,” she said, glancing down at Martin's dead body (a body I was trying my best not to look at) and smiling slightly before her eyes went back to V, “any more bloodshed. No one needs a war around here. Things are peaceful with the cops. No one needs them involved. So let's settle this.”
“I won't hand her over until I have Rich.”
Shit.
If I survived that long.
Without my gun.
No way would they let me keep my gun.
Martin was gone.
But the new guy at the door might be angry about that fact.
What would that mean for me?
Reign would never allow that, would he?
“That's fair,” Lo agreed and I felt my heart plummet. Sink.
“When?” V asked, sounding excited.
I couldn't even imagine the kinds of things she would do to my father if she got her hands on him. It would make the torture I endured look like summer camp.
They couldn't get him.
There had to be another way.
Lo turned to Reign, her gaze skipping over me and I saw something there. Something I wasn't familiar with because I didn't know her, but I felt like it was something that should comfort me. “When can you have him here?”
“If Janie can pick him up, Repo will bring him to her as soon as she gets there.”
Repo.
Repo was alright.
I exhaled a shaky breath and Reign's arm tightened around my belly.
V nodded at Lo and then Reign. “Make the calls.”
Reign's arm slid from the gun and reached into his pocket. So did Lo's.
Then they were both speaking at once.
“Repo, I need you to get Lyon out of the front gates. A woman named Janie is going to come and pick him up. What? Yeah, I guess that's fine.” There was a pause, Repo talking, and I could swear I heard something about 'weapons'. To which, Reign said tightly, “Definitely.”
“Janie, get over to the Henchmen compound. A man named Repo is going to bring Lyon out and you are to bring him here. Yep. Out.”
“Alright, so we wait,” V said, looking satisfied. Almost giddy. “Does anyone want some coffee?” she asked, waving a hand toward the pot as if they were having a normal social call.
“Sure,” Lo agree, walking over and (no lie) going directly to the cabinet with the mugs. Like she had done so a dozen times before.
Who the hell was she?
“So since we have some time,” V said, turning in the direction of me and Reign and I swear my belly dropped to my feet, “why don't we talk about you two?”
“No,” I answered, surprised when my word came out firm.
“I think I have a right to get to know the man my only daughter is in love with.”
Oh
my
god.
She did not just say that.
I felt my cheeks flame.
“I think you lost the right to ask me about my life the day you handed me over in trade for the right to be a human trafficker,” I shot back. What can I say? My mother brought out the rebellious teenager in me. And I was still the only one in the room with a gun. Or with a drawn gun at least. I felt almost untouchable. Almost.
“Oh don't be bitter. You'll get wrinkles,” she said, waving a hand at my attitude. “Who you have sex with is really none of my concern. Though I'm sure your father would have an issue with a man who runs an outlaw biker gang. With the way he raised you?” she laughed, rolling her eyes. “What was the last guy you dated? A stock broker? He was, right?”
I swallowed hard, feeling Reign's arm around me, his body tense behind me. “Yes,” I answered honestly.
“And even he wasn't good enough for your father.”
That was true.
I'd been lectured mercilessly about it.
“I'm only curious because if you leave here and align yourself with someone who might, at one time, be my enemy... well...”
Well, I was her enemy too.
How she thought I was going to be anything other than her enemy no matter who I dated was completely beyond me. But, I guess, you can't expect rationality from irrational people.
“So how long have you been together?”
Oh my god.
We were not having that conversation. That was a bad enough conversation to have over dinner when you finally brought your significant other over to meet your parents. It was a whole new level of uncomfortable to have that conversation over a dead body, with a gun drawn, while awaiting the delivery of a new hostage.
Like, seriously.
Who had to deal with that kind of situation?
Hell, I wasn't even sure Reign and I were together. Like together together. We had never had a talk about what we were. We just kinda... did our thing.
“Three weeks,” Reign answered, surprising me, making my body jerk.
“Three weeks,” she mused, pursing her lips. “So right when you ran away from here.”
Escaped.
I escaped from there.
“Found her that night,” Reign agreed.
“And you just... claimed her? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he agreed.
Were they really having that conversation? With me standing between them? It was a whole new level of weird that I didn't have a word for it.
“When she walks out of here...” V started.
“She's mine,” Reign said, his tone firm.
I was his?
The words settled with a swirling in my belly.
I was his.
The thought made me so happy, I had to fight to keep a smile off my face.
V nodded. “She's not the kind of girl for your lifestyle.”
To this, Reign laughed. “V, no disrespect but you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.” I tensed, waiting for V to get angry, but she didn't. Her head tilted, her hand made a swirling motion that said 'go on'. “When we caught your boy and asked her to come down and just give us a nod if he was one of yours? She beat the shit out of him. Told me to have fun killing him. Then was so turned on by it that we fucked against the building.”